Nipping & Tucking

Did They Go Under the Knife?

10.05.11

Nipping & Tucking

Did They Go Under the Knife?

Famous men appear to be nipping and tucking their way to a more youthful look. From Steve Martin to Simon Cowell to Vladimir Putin, see 12 male celebrities said to have had lifts, Botox, or other cosmetic procedures.

10.05.11 5:15 AM ET

Famous men appear to be nipping and tucking their way to a more youthful look. From Steve Martin to Simon Cowell to Vladimir Putin, see 12 male celebrities said to have had lifts, Botox, or other cosmetic procedures.

Scott Wintrow / Getty Images; AP Photo

Steve Martin

Steve Martin, 66, has hair that’s been snow-white as long as most people can remember. But with the release of 2009’s It’s Complicated—in which a character played by Martin’s co-star, Meryl Streep, considers plastic surgery after her husband leaves her for a younger woman—rumors swirled about Martin’s own dabbling in the cosmetic arts. Surgeons have speculated that his largely unchanged look over the past 20 years may be due to an injection of “conservative facial fillers and Botox,” though the star has never confirmed or denied it. Martin has revealed, however, that he is not opposed to the idea. While chatting with MTV and his It’s Complicated co-stars, Streep and Alec Baldwin, Martin said, “I think there's a cliché of how people look when they have it done. I don't have anything against it theoretically if you don't end up looking weird, like a nonperson."

Junko Kimura / Getty Images; AP Photo

Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood may be known for his rugged looks and bad-ass charm, but after the 2007 Golden Globe Awards, rumors milled about the Dirty Harry star’s possible eyelid surgery and laser skin resurfacing. Wrinkles and sun damage—no doubt brought on by his extensive time outdoors while filming such classic Westerns as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Unforgiven—abruptly seemed to fade, although, as one plastic surgeon told MSNBC, “there is no obvious evidence of it.” Eastwood himself has condemned the ever-increasing use of cosmetic surgery, saying, “Plastic surgery used to be a thing where older people would try to go into this dream world of being 28 years old again. But now, in Hollywood, even people at 28 are having work done. Society has made us believe you should look like an 18-year-old model all your life. But I figure I might as well just be what I am.”

Avik Gilboa, WireImage / Getty Images; AP Photo

Michael Douglas

After Michael Douglas was photographed in Barbados in 2005 with a bandage under his left ear and a seeping wound under his right, rumors sprang up that he was recovering from a face-lift. His spokesman denied the rumors and asserted that the marks were the result of surgery that removed several noncancerous lesions. The 67-year-old actor announced in 2010 that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer, further debunking the face-lift rumors. He did, however, admit to a lift procedure before his wedding in 2005 to Catherine Zeta-Jones, who is 25 years his junior.

Frazer Harrison / Getty Images; AP Photo

Zac Efron

Ashley Tisdale’s nose job might be the most buzzed-about cosmetic procedure of the High School Musical cast, but her co-star Zac Efron is also rumored to have received a rhinoplasty. Pictures of the star when he was much younger show a broader nose bridge and wider nostrils—and unless his nose has somehow shrunk with time, the rumors seem credible. Since the surgery appears to have been performed before the nearly 24-year-old idol reached the height of fame, however, his subtly altered nose has largely failed to get the same media attention that Tisdale’s received.

Gamma / Getty Images; AP Photo

Tom Cruise

Although 49 year-old Tom Cruise’s plastic-surgery rumors have ranged from nose jobs to liposuction to laser skin treatment over the years, it was all speculation until a “source” told In Touch Weekly last year about the extremes Cruise was willing to go to for his reprise of the starring role in this year’s Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. In addition to a “strict fitness routine and diet” that included “daily three-hour workouts and a low-carb meal plan consisting of 1,200-1,300 calories per day,” Cruise was reportedly considering Botox injections to help shave 10 years off his appearance.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images; AP Photo

Burt Reynolds

Burt Reynolds has been plagued by financial troubles this year, but the 75-year-old Boogie Nights star has also frequently been dogged by rumors of bad plastic surgery. Speculators have been ascribing Reynolds’s stretched-back appearance to an overzealous face-lift since at least the late '90s, but the former heartthrob denied face-lift rumors in an interview with OK! Magazine this year, saying, “I was never lifted. I would not have a problem with the truth, but I inherited my smooth skin from my father.” He did admit, however, that he had work done on his eyes “in the mid '80s, after some fights in a film” because his eyes “were not in form anymore.”

Bryan Bedder / Getty Images; Carin Baer / Getty Images

Simon Cowell

The question regarding Simon Cowell’s affair with plastic surgery is not whether he has had work done, but how much alteration there has been. The 51-year-old producer and TV personality admitted to the Daily Mail that he has had Botox injections, but heartily rejected his fellow 2007 X-Factor judge Louis Walsh’s theory that Cowell had also received pectoral implants. Surgeons have said of his look on this fall’s season of X-Factor that overuse of Botox has given Cowell an “unnatural appearance,” though in the Daily Mail interview, he insisted he does not use Botox in an “obsessive way.”

Stephen Shugerman / Getty Images; Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Al Pacino

In The Devil’s Advocate, John Milton, played by Al Pacino, famously stated, “Vanity is my favorite sin.” This perhaps reflected Pacino’s attitude in 1995, when plastic-surgery rumors were set aflutter regarding possible face-lifts and brow lifts undergone by the actor, then 55. Now 71, Pacino has changing features that have been attributed by some to a variety of possible procedures, including Botox injections, laser skin resurfacing, and a nose job that lifted the tip of his nose—all this, of course, in addition to the standard face-life and eye-lift rumors he has yet to confirm or deny.

Harry Hamburg/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images; AP Photo

Robert Redford

Known for his roles in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and other movies, Robert Redford has vehemently denounced the practice of plastic surgery, saying, “I'm not jumping on the Hollywood bandwagon and turning the clock back with a face-lift. So what if my face is falling apart? I don't give a damn.” That didn’t stop comedienne Joan Rivers (an evident fan of plastic surgery herself) from poking fun at the 75-year-old actor’s “obvious” cosmetic work in 2005. She said, “Robert Redford had such a bad job. God, whoever did him should be ashamed—or maybe he left it too long so it's much more obvious.” Surgeons seem to agree with Rivers’s notion, noting that Redford’s eyes have seemed “more awake” in recent years, indicative of an eye lift.

Vince Bucci / Getty Images; Sam Snap, FilmMagic / Getty Images

Barry Manilow

A regular on the plastic-surgery circuit, Barry Manilow was first thought to have undergone a face-lift in 1995, another one plus an eyelid filler in 2003, and yet another face-lift in 2006, with regular Botox injections all along the way. The 68-year-old singer has thus been looking increasingly surprised in recent years, though he has yet to admit to any cosmetic procedures.

Junko Kimura / Getty Images; AP Photo

Vladimir Putin

Vladmir Putin may have ironed out many of Russia’s problems while serving as president (and as current prime minister), but the 58-year-old politician has also shown an affinity for ironing out the wrinkles on his face. Surgeons reported to the Daily Mailthat Putin’s smooth look while accepting his party’s presidential nomination in September was a result of “extensive cosmetic surgery,” including “a facelift, cheek-fillers, a brow-lift,” and the “removal of bags under his eyes and Botox.” Putin’s spokesman, however, has denied the rumors, stating, “As far as I know he hasn’t been going through any surgical interventions.”